VR APIs in the works

SAN JOSE, Calif. — A dozen key stakeholders announced an effort to define cross-vendor, royalty-free, open application programming interfaces for virtual reality. It aims to reduce fragmentation and make it easier to write applications that run well across a growing range of VR products.

The Khronos Group announced a call for participation in the effort it will host to specify application- and driver-level APIs. The full scope of the effort has yet to be defined. However, the work is expected to include APIs for tracking headsets, controllers, and other objects, as well as rendering content on range of displays.

“As well as providing application portability, a goal of the standard is to enable new and innovative sensors and devices to implement up to a standard driver interface to be used easily by VR runtimes,” said Neil Trevett, president of Khronos, in an email exchange with EE Times.

So far, the group includes VR chip and system vendors such as AMD, ARM, Google, Intel, Nvidia, Oculus, and Valve. The group also includes the developers of the open-source VR products, software developer Epic Games, and eye-tracking specialist Tobii.

Major players not involved so far include Apple, Samsung, and Qualcomm. A Qualcomm representative said, "We are working with Khronos on this initiative."